


Day 13: Animals - Captain Kit

by 221b_hound



Series: Techienician: Botanical Love [14]
Category: Dredd (2012), Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: 30 Days of Techienician, Animals, Cats, M/M, Techienician
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-13
Updated: 2016-09-13
Packaged: 2018-08-14 19:06:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,424
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8025487
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/221b_hound/pseuds/221b_hound
Summary: When Captain Kit goes missing, General Phasma does not panic. Very assiduously, she does not panic, and goes about discovering that her cat is making a friend.





	Day 13: Animals - Captain Kit

When Captain Kit goes missing, General Phasma does not panic. She is a kriffing _general_ of a kriffing First Order _battleship_ , in command of _thousands of beings_ , in a position to maintain the intergalactic peace and therefore requiring the _coolest_ of cool heads. She grew up on a planet where she not only supped on danger and menace from the cradle, she was smart and tough and _controlled_ enough to _escape_ from that miserable pit. General Phasma is _not a panicker_.

 So when she sits at the control panel, calling up security footage from the last six hours (since she was last in her quarters) to track exactly when and how Captain Kit slipped out of their rooms, she is not panicking. She is being a _kriffing_ _General_ in charge of a search and rescue mission.

Phasma can see when her assistant – Protocol Advisor Mitaka – lets himself in to return her dress uniform after cleaning (the last diplomatic summit on-board had involved an unhappy mishap with a tray of hors d’oeuvres, for which the General had borne the consequences), a datachip of the intelligence gleaned that night, and a basket of fresh fruit from the latest consignment, because Mitaka knows she likes fresh fruit to snack on. And, she sees, he has also brought a dish of fish for Captain Kit.

She also sees what Mitaka doesn’t see – because he was overladen with uniform, datachip and food – which is that Captain Kit slipped out the door as Mitaka entered.

General Phasma is momentarily inclined to be furious with Mitaka, but the man brought fresh fish for Captain Kit.  Right. So blame is not an appropriate response. Finding Captain Kit is.

Phasma pours over the security footage from the corridor and sees where Captain Kit slips away and darts down the hall. She sees him dashing back and forth, avoiding feet, getting startled, darting further away, and further. She tracks her cat down one corridor, down another, into an elevator, down three levels, along more corridors, up elevators, down elevators, nearly being stood upon, nearly being squashed by antigrav trolleys full of heavy equipment. More than once her heart pounds like it’s the battlefield when her little trooper comes too close to friendly fire…

… and then the footage shows her a huge lumbering man spotting her little kitty in the radar telemetry workroom, where Captain Kit appears to want to pee on exposed wiring. She recognises the blond hair, the glasses, the big ears and wide mouth that is pulled down in a solemn and not entirely friendly frown. Her own expression is not entirely friendly as she sees this giant of a man – Hugon, known to have a temper, and he’s so huge compared to other people let alone her little cat, it’s alarming – bend to scoop Captain Kit up from her life- and equipment-threatening squat.

Those massive hands close around Captain Kit and lift her away from the wiring. They pull Captain Kit against his overalls and orange toolbelt. Captain Kit, in a proper cat panic, yowls, scratches, and pisses all over his clothes.

General Phasma cranks up the sound, which she’s had off, to find out exactly what she’s going to have this bastard court-martialled for when she ends him for hurting her cat.

“Ow! Hey, hey, hey…poor thing, it’s okay. Hey, Jex, close the door, willya? Okay, putting you down now, see? It’s okay. There kitty, kitty.”

Hugon, her odd computer tech’s boyfriend, places Captain Kit on the floor and she tears away to hide behind an open workstation panel.

“Kriffing cat,” says Jex-who-closed-the-door. "Ha. It's improved your looks though."

Hugon wipes the line of blood on his cheek into a smear and shrugs. "Only stings a bit." He crouches in front of the workstation where Captain Kit is hiding. “Come on kitty. Kitty, kitty, kitty.” He wipes his bloody fingers on his overalls then holds them out for Captain Kit to sniff. Kit does so cautiously. Hugon smiles lopsidedly at her. “Ha. That’s it. See? I’m all right.”

“It marked you as territory and everything,” says Jex, "Piss _and_ claws."

“She was scared,” says Hugon gently. Captain Kit is now rubbing her face against his fingers.

“You stink of cat piss,” says a voice off-camera.

Hugon ignores it, wiggling his fingers instead. Captain Kit bats at them, and Hugon laughs. He scratches her behind the ears.

Phasma checks the timestamp on the footage. An hour ago. So where is Captain Kit now? Phasma forwards through the vid. She sees Hugon coax Captain Kit into the open and pick her up. Captain Kit is sniffing Hugon’s soiled overalls with interest and Hugon appears to be crooning to her. There’s a little discussion with his colleagues – the two others appear to mock him, and when they’re not looking he gives them a sly look that seems to promise later payback – but finally they use the comms. Ten minutes later, her mech-eyed computer tech shows up with a box. He slips into the workroom and, ignoring Hugon’s unpleasant colleagues, he places the box on the floor and brings out food of some type.

He sees the scratch on Hugon's face, his mouth shaping an 'oh' of distress as he reaches out. His fingers trail over the scratch, smearing a little blood, though the wound has mostly stopped bleeding now. Techie puts his fingers into his own mouth, sucking off the blood, then kisses Hugon's cheek. Hugon is patting Techie's hip in a reassuring manner.

Then Techie and Hugon fuss Captain Kit, but not too closely. They’re gentle with her, and slow, keeping her calm. She eats from Techie’s fingers, and then willingly jumps into the box where he’s left more to eat. Hugon closes the box while Techie gives Jex and his companion a steely glare. Phasma cranks up the sound again.

“…the General’s cat,” Techie is saying to Hugon, “I met her once.”

“The _General_?” Jex.

“The _cat_.” Techie gives Jex a look like Jex is the mad one, then bends to croon to Captain Kit through the closed lid of the box. “Pretty kitty.”

Timestamp. Half an hour ago.

Phasma is just about to track Hugon, Techie and the box containing her Captain Kit when her door comms chime.

Impatient – she doesn’t want to bother with ship business right now, she has a cat to retrieve – she hits the lock and her door slides open.

On the floor in front of her are two boxes, a small open one on top of a large closed one. The larger one is emitting mewing sounds. The smaller one contains… muffins, by the look of it. And a wire sculpture of what looks like a cat.

As she bends to bring both boxes inside, she catches a glimpse of red hair and of yellow-blond, watching from around the bend. They disappear suddenly, though, as soon as Phasma has hold of the boxes.

Inside, Phasma and Captain Kit are reunited, Kit purring her delight at being delivered from long dark corridors and small dark boxes. Phasma does not care one whit about the black fur being left all over her uniform. It’s a black uniform. It’ll hardly show.

Still cuddling Captain Kit, Phasma places the copper cat sculpture on her workstation, fetches a muffin, and brings up the current security feed.

Hugon and Techie are holding hands as they return to the maintenance deck and their assigned tasks. The scratch is a line down Hugon's face, forehead and cheekbone, just missing his eye, but there's no more bleeding and it doesn't look inflamed. Seems as though he's treated it already. His overalls are a slightly different colour to the ones Captain Kit peed on in her fright, so it seems he and Techie took just enough time for him to change, daub on an antibiotic and… to provide these little gifts. Who knows who the muffins were destined for, but the wire cat must have been already completed.

Phasma wonders if they think Captain Kit’s return and the gifts are anonymous. Most of the crew would be tempted to curry favour with her. These two appear simply happy to have brought Captain Kit home with a few tokens and to get back to work.

Phasma checks the Peace Garden roster, notes that Hugon and Techie have never been assigned. She sends an order to their supervisor.

_To: Maintenance Shift Supervisor Leslee. Radar Technician Matthew Hugon and Computer Technician Techie (no second name): Full Peace Garden Privileges granted until further notice. by order, Gen. Phasma._

 


End file.
